Each day on my commute to work I pass through Santiago’s international bus station. I love being in big transit centers—airports, train stations, bus stations—to watch people set off on and arrive from their journeys. As I emerge from the metro stop I take off my headphones to soak up the sounds of the bus terminal. First I hear the man selling menthol cough drops (everyone in this city seems to be getting sick right now), and the woman who stands next to him selling assorted chocolates. Then I hear someone say “¿Le ayudo?” and I turn around to see a young man stopping to help an elderly man carry his large suitcase.
As we step outside, the sound of bus breaks and motors gets louder, and the smell of gas is strong. Lost-eyed travelers cock their heads to better hear the bus attendants as they shout out the destination of their bus: “¡Cartagena!”, “¡Atacama!”, “¡Constitución!” I hear the “chug-chug-chug” as the buses pull in from overnight voyages and watch the passengers from within wipe the breath-fog off the windows so they can sleepily peer out at the view of Santiago in the morning (if it’s clear, which it rarely is, there’s a spectacular view of the snow-capped mountains!). Finally, as I exit the station and head towards the office, a gaggle of cab drivers holding steaming Styrofoam coffee cups offers to ferry me away. I pop my earphones in and jam-out towards the fruit stand to buy my morning apple.
My daily routine, mixed with the adventure of the travelers at the bus terminal, is quite symbolic of my time as a Kiva Fellow. Sometimes as a volunteer, change is the only constant. While this is exhilarating, I am thankful to have found a steady rhythm spending every day at Fondo Esperanza. The Fondo Esperanza staff and the micro-entrepreneurs they serve are so dynamic that some days I feel like we’ve traveled over continents together. So for the first time in a long time, I’m not absolutely squirming with travel fever. Though I can’t lie: more than once I’ve been severely tempted to hop onto the bus after a studly “mochilero” I’ve seen adjusting his backpack before he steps on board! 
Kati Mayfield is currently a Kiva Fellow in Santiago, Chile. For more about other Kiva Fellow’s experiences, check out entries by La Vida Idealist bloggers Meg Gray, Rob Packer, Sheethal Shobowale and Suzy Marinkovich.
Latest posts by katimayfield
- The Lost Boys of Santiago - July 8th, 2010
- High Definition - June 24th, 2010
- Fatalism and Optimism - June 3rd, 2010
- Mother Hen - May 6th, 2010
- A Matter of Trust - April 22nd, 2010
